[Pkg-samba-maint] Bug#650091: Bug#650091: libpam-winbind package description

[Jelmer Vernooij]

On 11/27/2011 03:17 AM, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Jonathan Nieder wrote:
>
>> I assume that in practice, the main problem is that anyone searching
>> with "apt-cache search NetBIOS" is not going to find the package.
> On second thought: looking over the current description of the winbind
> package, I am already happy with it.  I guess libpam-winbind should
> just say
>
>   .
>   This package provides PAM modules and NSS plugins to integrate
>   winbind into the system's authentication and user/group/hostname
>   lookup mechanisms.
>
> and leave the talk of NetBIOS and detailed use cases to the "winbind"
> package description.  For reference, here's that description, in case
> someone has ideas for improvements.
>
> Description: Samba nameservice integration server
>   Samba is an implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol [...]
>   .
>   This package provides winbindd, a daemon which integrates authentication
>   and directory service (user/group lookup) mechanisms from a Windows
>   domain on a Linux system.  User/group lookups are configured via
>   /etc/nsswitch.conf, and authentication is integrated using the winbind
>   module for PAM.
>
Winbind itself isn't actually related to NetBIOS, and doesn't provide 
any NetBIOS-related functionality. I don't think we should talk about 
NetBIOS in the winbind package description.

I'm not sure why libpam-wins is in the libpam-winbind package these 
days; I imagine most people who use winbind don't actually use 
libpam-wins. NetBIOS is usually only used in older style networks 
(DOS/Windows '95/'9x/), as people in newer networks will just rely on 
DNS. Winbind is exclusively used in domains (Windows NT 4 and up).

Cheers,

Jelemr